Cheltenham League Meetings

CHELTENHAM ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Minutes of the Management Committee Meeting at the Victory Club Cheltenham on Wednesday 26th July 2006.

Attendees: G Cook, R Attwood , N Oram, L Fisher, A.Stiley, T Onions, M.Lytheer, R.Overington, P.Tustain.

Apologies: J Crowther, J Hunt, B Hill

Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 24th May 2006 were read and accepted

Matters Arising from the minutes.

Subsequent to the last meeting, numerous telephone calls had been received from Mr M Ricketts, secretary of Beeches FC, in which it was evident that he had become aware of the decision to cede the club into Division Three should its application to join the League be successful. This was confirmed to Mr Ricketts and, as a consequence, Beeches FC withdrew their application to join the League. Subsequently, Broadway United was elected to the League instead of Beeches FC. The meeting was informed that this matter would be covered further under correspondence

A reply had been received from Northway FC with regard to their match at the end of last season at home to Hatherley Rangers. It was pointed out that this would be dealt with under agenda item 7

Correspondence:

Reported for Discussion

Letter from Beeches FC, dated Monday, 28th May, 2006, withdrawing their application to join the Cheltenham League for season 2006-2007.
The contents of the letter were noted for possible future reference
Email from Paul Carlier, via the FA's Full Time Web Site, enquiring about the prospect of sponsoring the League for next season.
Reply sent explaining that the League was not sponsored at the moment
Further email received from Paul Carlier, giving details of the proposal of his company, which deals in on line gaming.
It was decided not to proceed with this matter
Email from Naunton Park confirming the clubs intention to embroider over the England badges that were displayed on their first team kit last season.
It was noted that Naunton Park have now decided to utilise a different kit for the coming season
Email from Winchcombe Town asking for details of the League standard for first aid kits as they were in the process of replenishing their kit.
Discussions ensued in which it was confirmed that a company by the name of Smith & Nephew used to be known as the most reliable source of first aid kits that were consistent with Football Association standards. Further to this, the Secretary was asked to write to Winchcombe Town and confirm that the League always adopted the guidelines laid down by the FA on these matters. Consequently, clubs should, therefore, refer to the GFA for the most up to date details of the requirements for the contents of first aid kits.
Email from Smiths Athletic informing the League that, after 66 years of playing their football at Newlands Park, the club had been left with no option but to move all their teams to Dowty Rotol Sports Ground in Staverton.
Letter subsequently received confirming the above.
Sympathy was expressed with the situation that Smiths Athletic found themselves in and the fact that they had now moved to Dowty Rotol after 66 years was acknowledged.
Email from Smiths Athletic asking for permission to cancel their Fourth Team's Division 4 game against Tivoli Rovers on Saturday, 2nd September, as the players are away on a Race Weekend. Smiths also requested permission to postpone their 2nd team and 4th team matches on December 23rd.
Both of these requests were denied.
Email from FC Barometrics requesting that their matches on 11th November, 2006 and 9th December, 2006, be postponed because their players are likely to want to attend meetings at Cheltenham Racecourse on these days.
Both of these requests were denied.
Email from Steve Oakey, FA Registered Referee's instructor, forwarding a letter from Neale Barry, the FA Head of Referee Development. This letter points out that, henceforth, no players will be permitted to wear any jewellery at all when playing, even if it is taped up, and that any player ignoring this requirement will be cautioned and required to leave the field whilst the offending article is removed.
Following significant discussion on this matter, the General Secretary was asked to write to the GFA to register the League's disquiet with this requirement that had been handed down from the FA. It was felt that a considerable number of players, who were unable to remove wedding rings or who might have a religious or other deeply held reason for not wanting to remove certain items of Jewellery, would now be prevented from playing football. The General Secretary was asked to point out that, to all intents and purposes, this instruction could prove to be unworkable at local level.
Email from Hatherley Rangers informing the League that they will now be playing their home matches at Newlands Park, Bishops Cleeve. They also inform the League that the club Secretary will be unavailable from 28th July to 5th August and that Marcus Davitt or Peter Newcombe (01452 855391) are the first points of contact during this time
This was noted.

Correspondence Notified to the Meeting but not discussed

Email from Belmore Jags confirming receipt of the requirement issued by the League that the Club should attend the Management Committee meeting to be held on July 26th and giving details of the officers of the club who would be present at the meeting.
Email from Winchcombe Town pointing out the fact that the minutes from the last Management Committee meeting, which stated that AFC Southside were the only team in the League not to have incurred a fine this season, were incorrect as Winchcombe had not been fined either.
Email from Marc Fowler, Secretary of Elmbridge Old Boys, accepting the League's invitation to propose a vote of thanks at the Annual General Meeting
Email from Phil Crabb, Chairman of Belmore Jags, informing the League that the Club's Secretary was in hospital and asking for details of any outstanding matters relating to the Club's dealings with the League.
Reply sent detailing the fact that the club had an outstanding invoice which had lead to them being suspended. Warning issued to the effect that if this invoice was not paid before the AGM, the club would not be able to attend the meeting. Also requested Supplementary Information form and confirmation of the grounds at which the club wished to play next season.
Supplementary Information form returned and Confirmation of grounds to be used received.
Email from Broadway United confirming that they had notified the Stratford-Upon-Avon Football Alliance of their intention to withdraw for next season. Broadway United also confirmed that they have no outstanding debts to this League
Letter from Northleach Town, containing the minutes of their committee meeting held on May 31st. Date of next meeting is given as June, following the League AGM
Letter from Northway, giving their interpretation of the events that surrounded the Division One match between Northway 1st Team and Hatherley Rangers, which was played at Ashchurch Playing Fields on Saturday, 29th April, 2006
Email from Paul Baker, the manager of the Sports Centre of Tewkesbury School, asking if the facilities at the school could be re-inspected with a view to possibly holding Cheltenham League matches at the venue next season
Email from Paul Carlier detailing a proposed sponsorship package for the League.
On further investigation, it became evident that this was a gaming company that would ascribe a percentage of the money spent on its games, under the auspices of the League, to League funds
Email from Broadway United confirming that the club had taken the necessary steps to resign from the Stratford-Upon-Avon Football Alliance and that the club had no outstanding debts to that League
Email from Graham White, of Gloucestershire Grassroots Sports Magazine, explaining that it was the intention of the publication not to cover the Cheltenham League next season because of the paucity of support it had received from the League's clubs
Reply sent expressing no surprise at this turn of events and detailing possible causes for the lack of support
Email from the Chairman of Belmore Jags, confirming the fact that they were aware that they had to pay an outstanding fine before they would be allowed to attend the League's AGM
Further email confirming that the fines had been paid in advance of the AGM
Email from Falcons registering their apologies for missing the AGM, at which they were not aware that they had to be represented.
Email from Dynamos confirming the fact that they had sent their Supplementary Information forms to John Hunt, the League's Assistant Secretary
Email from the GFA, containing details of the latest standard code of rules for clubs
Email from Tivoli Rovers, requesting details of the process for paying their £50 deposit subsequent to their admittance to the League at the AGM
Letter from Hatherley Rangers containing a copy of correspondence sent by the club to the Chairman of the Up Hatherley Parish Council, registering the club's support for the protest against the closure of the M & G Sports Ground in Cold Pool Lane
Email from AC Olympia, requesting that the club does not have a fixture on Saturday, 2nd September, as the whole club is at a wedding that day
Email from Broadway United, requesting an explanation of the invoice for fees that they had received from the League.
Reply sent giving details of the charges that are made by the League at this stage of the season
Email from Broadway United confirming that the club is affiliated to the Worcestershire FA
Email from Finlay Rovers requesting that League correspondence be sent to their secretary by Royal Mail as their secretary is experiencing Computer difficulties
Email from Whaddon United asking for a list of Summer Tournaments
Email from Tewkesbury Dynamos requesting approval for new sponsorship details to appear on the clubs shirts
Reply sent asking for details of the artwork involved
Letter from WS Trenhaile, Funeral Directors, confirming receipt of the League's £50 donation to the British Lung Foundation, in memory of Ron Lawrence
Letter from Mr Alan Pearce, Secretary of the Cheltenham Branch of the Referees Association, requesting details of the League's current stance on the matter of Referee's Result Cards, in light of the difficulties that were experienced last season.
Reply sent explaining that the League will now operate a two Card system and confirming that details of the changes that effect referees will be contained within the Letter that will accompany each referee's copy of the handbook for the new season.
Email from Moreton Rangers, requesting that the club does not play at home on Saturday, September 2nd, as the Moreton Show is held that day and the town becomes gridlocked with traffic.
Reply sent confirming that Moreton Rangers are away on that day
Email from Naunton Park, informing the League of a change of details for their secretary. He no longer has a landline telephone number and his mobile number has changed to 07768 343574. Naunton Park also gave notice of the fact that their 1st team's colours will be changing to all blue, with change colours being Red and Black.
Email from Tivoli Rovers informing the League that, due to a renovation of facilities at Cheltenham Kingsmead School, the club would not be able to play their first four scheduled League Matches at the venue. They ask permission to play these matches at King George V Playing Fields and also inquired as to the process for obtaining the keys for this venue.
Reply sent informing Tivoli Rovers that it would be acceptable for them to play at King George V Playing Fields and informing them that they obtain keys for the changing rooms from the Cheltenham Borough Council offices at the Swindon Road Depot.
Email from Finlay Rovers thanking the League for the help provided in moving the club in the right direction at the start of a new season
Email from Hatherley Rangers, inquiring as to whether or not the League would have any objections to the club investigating the prospects of moving their home ground to the Newlands in Bishops Cleeve
Reply sent stating that, as this was an approved venue for League Matches, the League would have no objections
Email from Shipton Oliffe requesting more information with regard to the currently extant position in relation to signing on players who were registered with St Marks at the end of last season.
Reply sent stating that a decision on this matter will be taken at the Management Committee meeting of July 26th

Rule Offences:

The following clubs have been fined in accordance with rule 5h

i. Failure to satisfactorily attend to the business of the League - non return of Supplementary Information form by prescribed date. Fine £15: Northleach Town (form returned 07/06/06, FC Electrics (form returned 10/06/06)

Before considering the following matter, Mr Terry Onions and Mr Phil Tustain were asked to take their leave of the meeting

ii. Failure to satisfactorily attend to the business of the League - no reply to request for club histories. Clubs to be warned as to their future conduct and given a further 7 days to comply: Bishops Cleeve, Brockworth Albion, Cheltenham Civil Service, Cleevonians, Northleach Town, Northway, Phoenix United, Tewkesbury YMCA, Tivoli Rovers

Mr Onions and Mr Tustain returned to the meeting

iii. Failure to satisfactorily attend to the business of the League - no acknowledgement of Fixtures. Fine £10: Broadway United, Phoenix United

The following clubs have been fined in accordance with rule 5(I): Failure to pay invoices by the due date

i. Invoices due on 14/06/06:
Fine £20: Belmore Jags (Invoice 4, £25), Naunton Park (Invoice 7, £35), Northway (Invoice 14, £10), Fine £15: Gaffers (Invoice 15, £5, paid 16/06/06)

It was noted that Belmore Jags, Naunton Park and Northway were all currently suspended from the League for non payment of fines and that each club had now received its one reminder for the season.

The following clubs have been fined in accordance with rule 6H - failure to be represented at the Annual General Meeting. Fine £15: Charlton Kings, Falcons, Finlay Rovers

Club Review

Minutes had been received from Northleach Town for their meeting that was held on Wednesday, 31st May. They had another new administrative structure in place but the signs seemed to be promising with regard to the club pulling itself around. It was agreed that the progress made by Northleach Town would be further reviewed at the October meeting.
No minutes had been received from Finlay Rovers since the last meeting, although a number of emails had been received from their secretary. A general belief was expressed that Finlay Rovers were making significant efforts to improve their overall operation and it was also agreed to subject the club to a further review in October.
St Marks had not been included in the proposed constitution for season 2006-2007 that had been put forward to the Annual General Meeting in June. The member clubs had ratified this constitution and, therefore, St Marks were no longer members of the League.
A number of enquiries had been received from other clubs, however, with regard to signing players who were registered with St Marks last season. The instigators of all these enquiries had been informed that the League was not currently accepting registrations for any players who were signed on with St Marks last season as St Marks still had outstanding debts to the League. These debts total in excess of £200. It has also been confirmed that St Marks still owed a similar amount to the GFA but that this was primarily made up of individual disciplinary fines which would probably become the responsibility of the person concerned.
The Chairman informed the meeting that the St Marks club no longer existed and that there was, therefore, no prospect of the debt being recovered from the club itself.
It was pointed out to the meeting that League Rules 5(N) and 14(D) made it clear that when a club defaulted on its debts to the League, the responsibility for payment of the debt fell to the members of the club on a pro rata basis. This being so, it was agreed that registrations would be accepted for all of last season's members of St Marks who had paid 1/52nd of the clubs debts to the League, this being the number of players registered by St Marks last season. This worked out to be £5 per player. It was noted that this was dependent on there being no over-riding embargo placed upon the players by the GFA. The League's Treasurer, Mr Les Fisher, and the League's registration Secretary, Mr Terry Onions, agreed to monitor the situation on an ongoing basis.

Hearing - Belmore Jags

A report into the number of fines incurred by Belmore Jags during the course of the 2006-2007 season had been prepared by the General Secretary and circulated to all committee members in advance of the meeting. It detailed the fact that the club had been fined for 45 different offences during the course of the campaign, the second highest number of fines incurred by a club in the League. It was acknowledged that Belmore Jags did have three teams and that the other clubs with a similar number of fines had less teams than this. It was explained to the meeting that it was for this reason that Belmore Jags had not been required to attend a Management Committee meeting during the course of last season. It was also pointed out to the meeting that, despite the fact that the club knew they were to appear before the League on this occasion, the club's membership of the League was currently suspended due to the non-payment of a fine. This was debated briefly and it was agreed that it was in the interests of all parties to continue with the hearing despite the suspension

Mr Phil Crabb, who identified himself as the Club Chairman and who explained that the Club Secretary, Mr Jim Hughes, was unable to attend because of a variety of reasons, represented the club. The meeting accepted the reasons for Mr Hughes non-attendance as valid. Mr Crabb gave a lucid account of the difficulties that Belmore Jags had faced during the course of season 2006/07 and told the meeting that the club accepted that the situation was far from satisfactory. He explained that the club had identified the causes of the problems and had re-organised itself in order to specifically address and eradicate these problems. He presented the League with payment for the outstanding fine and assured the committee that, following a lot of hard work by the clubs officers and members, the club had raised sufficient funds to meet its immediate obligations. In response to a direct question, Mr Crabb confirmed that he was aware that Belmore Jags had been sent an invoice for £685 by the League, which covered entry fees, registration fees, subscriptions and pitch hire for half a season. It was also pointed out that the deadline for payment of this invoice was July 31st. Mr Crabb confirmed that he was aware of both the invoice and the date on which payment was due and he was then asked to retire from the meeting whilst the committee considered this matter.
After discussion, it was decided that it seemed as if the club was moving in the right direction and that further action at this stage was not appropriate. Mr Crabb was asked to return to the meeting and was informed that the clubs suspension from the League had now been lifted and that the situation with regard to the club would be continually monitored over the coming months. It was also confirmed to Mr Crabb that the club's affairs would be subject to review by the Management Committee in October and that it was beholden upon the club to ensure that a significant improvement in the clubs administrative affairs was evident by then.

Northway v Hatherley Rangers

Before the following matter was considered, Mr Bob Overington was asked to leave the meeting.

A reply had been received from Northway FC, relating to the incidents at the clubs Division One Home match against Hatherley Rangers in April that had been the subject of discussion at the meeting held on May 24th. This reply was read to the meeting. The contents were noted and the Secretary was asked to write to Northway to re-iterate their obligations with regard to exercising control over their players, officials and Spectators. He was also asked to emphasise to Northway that they were being warned as to their future conduct and that any repetition of the types of incidents reported by Hatherley and confirmed by the separate communications received from the Match Referee and Northway themselves with regard to this matter, was likely to incur very serious consequences indeed.

Mr Arthur Stiley was asked to write to the referee concerned in this incident to emphasise the importance of reporting all incidents such as these. He was also asked to pass this message on to all referees who are registered with the League.

Charities Cup Sub Committee Report

The report of the meeting of the Charities Cup Sub Committee, which was held on Wednesday, 28th June 2006, had been circulated in advance. The Chairman pointed out to the meeting that the contents of the reports now needed to be ratified by the Management Committee and this ratification was agreed unanimously.

Fixtures

In the absence of the Assistant Secretary, the General Secretary informed the meeting that the League's fixtures for the season had been released at the beginning of July and that only two clubs still had to acknowledge these fixtures. He also informed the meeting that it was only latterly that certain clubs were making it known that they did not have the use of their pitch until after their first scheduled home match. The meeting was assured that these matches would typically be rearranged as evening fixtures in September and that the season would start with the month of April almost entirely free of fixtures, thus leaving it available for the rearrangements that would undoubtedly be necessary as the season progressed.

Registrations

Mr Terry Onions, the League's Registration Secretary, informed the meeting that registrations for the new season had only just started to arrive. He pointed out, however, that last season 150 more players had been registered with the League than during the previous campaign, which seemed to suggest an increase in interest rather than a decrease. He also informed the meeting that he would be pro-actively writing to each of the 52 players who were registered with St Marks last season, pointing out the fact that they had to pay £5 to the League Treasurer to cover their share of the clubs outstanding debt, before their registration for the new season would be accepted.

Any Other Business:

The General Secretary presented a report into the facilities at Tewkesbury School, which detailed an inspection that had been carried out on Tuesday, 25th July 2006. It was explained to the meeting that the League had withdrawn approval for matches to be played at Tewkesbury School at the beginning of last season. This was in response to the receipt of several reports from Referees which brought the League's attention to the unsatisfactory state of the pitch and the goalposts, which were bent and which had cup metal hooks along the cross bar to facilitate the fixing of goal nets. The report that was presented by the General Secretary detailed the fact that all these aspects had been rectified and recommended that the facilities at Tewkesbury School should be approved for Cheltenham League matches. This was agreed.

The General Secretary informed the meeting that he would be on holiday from August 9th to August 23rd inclusive.

Terry Onions, the Registration Secretary, informed the meeting that he had a new mobile telephone number. This is 07727 295816

Arthur Stiley, the Referee's Secretary, informed the meeting that he would be on holiday from 28th July to 11th August inclusive

Phil Tustain pointed out that he would be on holiday from August 12th to August 19th inclusive.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 8.44 pm

NEXT MEETING - WEDNESDAY 30th AUGUST, 2006

AT 7-15 PM